


Of Boardgames and Breakthroughs

by StripedSunhat



Series: Single Father Klaus [14]
Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: "good parenting", Arguments, Family Issues, Gen, Klaus listen to your son, Pre-Canon, Why Gil needs therapy, Why Klaus needs therapy, Why Sparks need therapy, sure, uh-huh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-18 14:29:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18251735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StripedSunhat/pseuds/StripedSunhat
Summary: Years of experience have taught Klaus that whenever Gil willingly chooses to play chess with no prompting what he's really doing is trying to lure Klaus into lowering his defenses through boredom so he can either say or ask for something either exceedingly irresponsible or reckless.





	Of Boardgames and Breakthroughs

**Author's Note:**

> So I started on this one and then decided I wanted the next story to come first. I got halfway through that one before realizing that no, this one does have to come first for better flow of continuity and generalized nit-picking. What that means for you lovely people is that it will (probably) be a quicker turn-around than normal for the next story in the series. Provided I don't get distracted by something shiny.

Gil fiddled with his bishop, tilting it back and forth on its space but so far refusing to actually make his move. “So…” He let go of the bishop and began fiddling with the pawn next to it. “Several of the other students have broken through in the last few months.”

“They have,” Klaus agreed. The influx of requisition forms had been impressive to say the least.

“There’s quite the Spark population at the school now.” Gil finally moved his bishop, taking one of Klaus’s pawns. Poor move, it left it vulnerable to Klaus’s knight.

“I wouldn’t that far,” he said as he neatly stealing the bishop. “However these things do tend to feed off each other. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more break through before everything calms back down.”

“It would be weird if there weren’t more breakthroughs, the way things are going.”

“Indeed.”

“I’m so glad you agree,” Gil said brightly as he slid his rook forward.

“Agree?” Alarm bells went off in Klaus’s mind, cutting sharply through the haze of chess-induced boredom. “Gil…”

“Yes Father?”

“Why are we playing chess right now?”

Gil looked up, brow crinkling in false confusion. “Because I need to work on my middle game?” he asked, a child hoping that giving a correct answer will distract from the fact that it wasn’t the real one.

“That’s why you need to continue practicing. It doesn’t however explain why when given a free choice you chose it.”

“Can’t I just be working on self-improvement? Is that really so hard to believe?”

“Gil. What do you want?” Gil heaved a sigh, more tired than theatrical. He fiddled with his queen, refusing to make eye contact. “Gil, whatever it is –”

“I think it’s time I broke through.”

Klaus blinked. “You broke through years ago.”

“ _I mean_ I think it’s time I stopped _hiding_ it.”

“No.”

“Why not?” Gil demanded.

“It’s too dangerous.”

“Too dangerous?” Gil repeated with a bitter snort. “There are three students at the school who are younger than me that have already broken through.”

“And they’re getting noticed," Klaus shot back with a scowl.

“Fifteen isn’t a prodigy, it’s barely a conversation point. ‘Oh did you hear the Baron’s charity orphan finally broke through? I guess Klaus knew what he was doing keeping him around all these years after all.’ Pretty soon people will start to talk if I _don’t_ break through.”

“Gil –” But Gil kept steamrolling right through.

“Because a charity case with no family and no bloodline –”

“Gilgamesh.”

“– and no Spark would not be allowed to stay aboard the seat of power of the empire –”

“Enough!”

“Let alone be afforded the privileges and kind of rein I have.”

“That is **_enough!_** ” Klaus yelled, launching himself up from the table, game long forgotten. “What would you have me do, cast you out for the sake of your cover?”

“No I would have you actually think and _adapt_ my cover like you do with literally everything else! Instead of insisting on keeping it exactly as it's been since I was eight even though it’s long since become as ineffective as it is stifling.”

“Oh so the truth comes out,” Klaus said, pushing away from the table entirely. He walked over to where his decanter was, pouring himself a large drink, draining the glass and slamming it back down. “It’s not that it’s in any way ineffective at all it’s that you feel it’s _stifling._ ”

Gil didn’t back down. He rounded the table, getting into Klaus’s space with no regard for personal boundaries or respect. “Yes Father it _is_ stifling. And that is **dangerous.** I’m not just surrounded by students anymore; I’m surrounded by **Sparks.** All it takes is one time, one experiment that I get pulled too far into. And from there it only takes one person. One person realizing I fell into a fugue rather than a breakthrough. Suddenly I’m not the charity case I’m the hidden prodigy. Suddenly I am what they’ll talk about. They’ll start digging, wanting to know what makes me so special. And they’ll keep digging, wanting to know what else you’re hiding about me.”

Klaus growled low in his throat. He pushed back, muscling himself into Gil’s space and forcing him to go on the defensive. It wasn’t as easy as it used to be. Gil was getting taller; he almost matched Klaus now. “We are not staging your breakthrough and that is final. If your control over your Spark is so tenuous then steps will be taken to deal with and correct that. But it won’t –” A sharp knock sounded at the door. Both Klaus and Gil jumped back, startled. The world, which had previously narrowed to this tight bubble of anger and tension, suddenly expanded again to include everything else.

“Herr Baron? You’re needed on the bridge.” Klaus glanced over at the door.

“Go ahead,” Gil said. “Your empire needs you. I’ll see myself out.”

* * *

There was a week of stony silence on both their parts. Finally Klaus broke it with an olive branch in the form of a free hour that Tuesday. If one of them was to be the bigger man it would be him before it was his teenage son.

It was a relief when Gil arrived at the doorway of his quarters at the appointed time. Both that he actually showed up and that he appeared to regret his behavior from last time. He shifted his weight awkwardly back and forth from one foot to the other, hovering in the doorway rather than actually coming inside the room.

When he caught sight of Klaus he gave him a small, hesitant smile. “Hi Father.”

Klaus offered him a teasing eye roll and a gentle smile of his own. “They’re the family quarters Gil. You have every right to be in them.”

“And what if I want to stay in the doorframe?” Gil asked, but his smile had turned much more mischievous and he was already moving away from the doorway in question into the room proper.

Klaus pretended not to notice. “Well then it’ll be that much harder to play any board games. I suppose we’ll just have to come up with something else.”

Gil broke into a wide, proper grin. “Well we can’t have that,” he said, striding over to the games cabinet. "I’ll get the backgammon set.”

For a moment Klaus considered letting Gil pick up the backgammon set rather than continuing the game – and with it, no doubt the conversation – from last time. In the end good parenting won out.

“If I remember correctly, we still have a chess game going.” Gil froze, fingers just brushing the lacquered surface of the backgammon case. He let his hand drop heavily to his side.

“Of course,” he said without turning around. The smile had left his voice.

Klaus fussed with the game board, motioning to Gil to come make a move. He’d made his next move after he got back from the bridge, as well as a few other minor adjustments to the board.

Gil dropped into his seat, studying the board with half-lidded eyes. “So you’ve more than doubled the amount of soldiers in the school.”

“You were the one who said your control wasn’t what it should be. I’m merely being a good parent.”

“Is that what you call it,” Gil muttered. Before Klaus could reprimand him he continued in a louder voice. “You also gave all the other students who’ve broken through new labs.”

Klaus nodded his head. “I did. There are several more in reserve for when more students break through.”

“They’re very heavily guarded,” Gil said, touching one of his pawns before dropping his hand again. “And only accessible to the student they’re assigned to. They can’t even bring anyone in with them.”

“New Sparks often need a space entirely their own. It helps them define themselves.”

“And you’re not worried about stifling intellectual creativity?”

“I prefer to think about it as protecting what needs protection. After all we wouldn’t want any slip ups, would we?”

Gil fiddled with his king and said nothing for several minutes. The silence stretched as he did so.

“It’s your move,” Klaus finally said. Gil glanced up then with one finger he knocked over his king. “You're giving up?" Klaus asked, not even trying to keep the bitter twist of disappointment from lacing his voice.

“I’m not giving up,” Gil corrected. “I'm simply recognizing that it would be a waste of time and energy to keep going at this particular game when it’s so obvious that I’m always going to lose.” He picked up the fallen king and rolled it back and forth between his fingers. “Isn’t it better to play a new game instead? One I might actually have a hope at winning.”

“A new game,” Klaus echoed. “Like when you flew your flying machine in front of the school’s windows?” He let his voice get colder with every word. “Or when you exploded the chemistry lab. Or when you tried to introduce Zoing to the school kitchen staff. _That_ kind of game? I think you’ll find I’ve been playing longer.”

Gil abruptly stood up from the table, stomping over to the doorway. “Where do you think you're going?” Klaus demanded. He refused to stand. One of them had to act the part of the adult.

Gil stopped, gripping the doorframe with white knuckles.  “My personal lab," he said over his shoulder, face turned straight ahead. "I assume I'm still allowed there. Don’t worry I won’t let anyone who shouldn’t know about me see me.”

As Gil stormed out, Klaus released a sigh he’d been holding. He carefully began putting the chess pieces away and did his best not to let rebellious teenage melodrama get in the way of proper parenting. It was not an easy task.

**Author's Note:**

> Klaus...  
> You...  
> I give up.
> 
> And again, reminder that at least by this series continuity his original plan had Gil _still in the dark_ at this point in time.


End file.
